Quo vadis, Eastern Partnership? Foreign Ministers of participant states to arrive in Minsk in June
The results of the Riga Summit of the Eastern Partnership Initiative will be summed up during an informal meeting of the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the states-participants of the Eastern Partnership in Minsk at the end of June, BelTA reports with reference to the TASS news agency.
“Traditionally, they are held in different countries of the Eastern Partnership. This is a routine event, a follow-up to the summit. The meeting participants will sum up the results of the summit in an informal atmosphere,” Belarus’ Minister of Foreign Affairs Uladzimir Makey told TASS.
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The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Eastern Partnership participating countries will exchange views on how this initiative should evolve in the future, he added.
A policy of fragmentation may ruin the European Union’s Eastern Partnership project, Makey told TASS on Thursday in response to a statement by Ukraine’s Ambassador to EU Konstantin Yeliseyev that it was necessary to separate Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova from the three other participants in the Eastern Partnership programme – Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus. He called the assertions ‘stupid’ and predicted that the initiative might ‘cease to exist’.
The negotiations in this format will be held in Minsk for the first time.
Russia sharply criticizes the Eastern Partnership and says the initiative is stacked against the influence of Moscow in the world. The Kremlin’s main ally, Belarusian president Alyaksandr Lukashenka, is rumoured not to have gone to the Eastern Partnership summit in Riga due to Russia’s stance, although he was invited.
The participants of the the Eastern Partnership summit in Riga ‘slam Russia either directly or indirectly’ in every document, the Belarusian leader said on May, 22
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The recent Eastern Partnership summit of EU and ex-Soviet countries took place in the Latvian capital on May 21-22, 2015. The partnership is an EU initiative with a stated goal of strengthening relations with its neighbours in Eastern Europe and Southern Caucasus – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.
Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makey represented Belarus in Riga. President Alyaksandr Lukashenka never attended the previous summits in Prague, Warsaw and Vilnius. The EU blacklisted the Belarusian leader and his sons for serious violations of human rights, for the repression of civil society and the democratic opposition or for undermining democracy and the rule of law in Belarus.
